Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Deferred
Paragraph: 152
Outline plans for blue hydrogen to address warming effect of emissions and methane leakage
Conclusion
Blue hydrogen may have value as a transitional measure which builds a market for hydrogen and provides supply over the shorter term. However, excess reliance on blue hydrogen could leave the UK exposed to volatile international gas prices and risk increasing greenhouse gas emissions due to the threat of methane leakage. In response to this report, we ask that the Government sets out how its plans for blue hydrogen will address recent evidence that hydrogen emissions escaping from gas pipelines have a stronger warming effect in the atmosphere than previously thought. It should include in that response an account of how it will ensure that efforts to constrain and monitor methane leakage at point of extraction, transportation and storage are robust.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response focuses entirely on improving electricity network connections and reducing connection timescales, including an upcoming Connections Action Plan, without addressing the committee's questions about blue hydrogen, hydrogen emissions, or methane leakage.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
152
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
72. To get the scale and cost reductions we need to meet its carbon budget and net zero commitments, the UK is supporting multiple production routes, including both blue and green hydrogen. In the UK Hydrogen Strategy (2021), the Government set out a roadmap for the hydrogen economy, which shows that the first movers are likely to be green hydrogen projects that can be deployed quickly, with production and end use closely linked, alongside scale-up of blue production, which can be produced at lower cost and with larger capacity. This will allow us to scale up production during the 2020s and be ready to meet the expected increases in demand in the 2030s. 73. The Government has a comprehensive set of guidance and standards in place to ensure any hydrogen production projects supported by government schemes such as the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and Hydrogen Production Business Model provide significant carbon emission savings while aiming to minimise any environmental impact. Effective use of hydrogen does not lead to its release into the atmosphere, but we recognise the need to minimise leakage in all production processes (electrolytic, CCS-enabled and others), as well as in transport and end use, to ensure we maximise the climate benefit of hydrogen use in the economy. In the UK Hydrogen Strategy, the Government committed to consider the wider environmental impacts of different methods of hydrogen production. The Government expects all planned hydrogen production projects to have robust integrated environmental assessments in place and to comply with the existing and future regulatory regime for environmental issues related to hydrogen production. 74. The Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard (‘the standard’) sets a maximum threshold for greenhouse gas emissions allowed in the production process for hydrogen to be considered ‘low carbon hydrogen’. Compliance with the standard being a requirement of government subsidy schemes, such as the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and Hydrogen Production Business Model, will help ensure new low carbon hydrogen production can make a direct contribution to our carbon reduction targets. The standard sets a ‘point of production’ system boundary. For CCS-enabled hydrogen, this means that the standard includes emissions from natural gas extraction, transportation and storage to the hydrogen production facility, and leakage before and at the hydrogen production facility. The standard provides supporting data and methods to ensure these emissions are calculated accurately. Supporting data will be updated as background datasets evolve. 75. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will work closely with the relevant regulators to understand any potential wider environmental concerns and the suitability of existing regulation to protect the environment as appropriate. This includes monitoring new research into the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of hydrogen and the resulting need to mitigate against the potential environmental risks, including possible fugitive emissions through leakage from any future hydrogen infrastructure. Decarbonisation of the power sector: Government Response 15 76. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, in collaboration with other government departments, is continuing the work with UK specialists and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to develop more reliable estimates of GB fugitive emissions, identify their impacts and increase capability to find, measure and quantify hydrogen emissions in a more systematic way. Moreover, UK environmental regulators have worked together, with industry and other stakeholders to produce guidance on Emerging techniques for hydrogen production with carbon capture, which includes techniques for reducing fugitive emissions.
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